Off the Counter
by Boltfromtheblue201
Summary: (One-Shot, Divergent) Having Hay Fever is no fun for anyone. Especially if you're leading a war against the Emperor of the World.


_So it's been a busy year for me, though I finally will have some free tome now that I'm on the home stretch of university. This weird story idea floated about for about three months but I finally got time to put it to paper. Since this story follows some of the dialogue and scenario of Episode 25 of Code Geass Season 2 I hope people won't see this story as too derivative once it diverges. I hope you all enjoy this story and please provide feedback on how I may improve my writing!_

 _I do not own Code Geass. All copyrights go to their respective owners._

* * *

"Achoo!" Schneizel sneezed into his left arm. _Of all the days to forget my allergy pills..._ The Second Prince of the Royal Family wiped his nose on his robe, his nostrils dripping with snot, his eyes reddened and tearing up. That blast of smoke from the battle going on above did not do his allergies any favors. He barely remembered even getting to the elevator during his sneezing fit.

"Prince Schneizel," Kanon had a hand on his majesty's shoulder, offering him a handful of tissues. Schneizel snatched the tissues and blew his nose hard, trying to get his nostrils cleared. One blow after another, blowing until he was lightheaded. "Please don't strain yourself your Highness." Kanon sounded pretty concerned.

"SNRRRRRRRRT, Gah!" Schneizel finally felt his nostrils clear up, picking his nostrils with the tissue to make sure. "Thank you Kanon," He tossed the messy tissues on the floor. "What were we talking about?"

"Your majesty, I asked how would get the money to build more F.L.E.I.J.A.s. We've bankrupted several agencies just to make the Damocles." Kanon held the tissues out, trying to make Schneizel take some.

Schneizel re-straightened his coat, not caring that there was now a large stain on the left forearm. "R-Right." He cleared his throat. "Lelouch is now enemy of the entire world. If our system destroys him, there will be many organizations eager to build more F.L.E.I.J.A.s for us."

"Isn't that terrorism? There's Princess Nunnally's option to consider too."

"And why should you care what our bait thinks?" Diethard interjected, standing to Schneizel's immediate left.

"W-what? We're abandoning her?"

"It's either the world or...o-ACHOOO!" Schneizel sneezed again, spraying snot all over Diethard's boots, to which Diethard visibly winced. Kanon forced the tissues to his majesty's hands. "Your Highness please take the tissues!" Kanon exclaimed, placing the little pack of tissues into Schneizel's palm. Schneizel rubbed his eyes in his left arm, trying to wipe the tears away. "W-why did you forget the pills Kanon?" The prince turned toward his aide. The prince was a wreck, his face pale, his eyes strained red, and his blonde hair a mess in front of his face.

Kanon pouted. "I left them on your desk as you said. You said that you wouldn't forget." Kanon brushed Schneizel's hair aside, the hair feeling greasy to the touch.

"Y-you couldn't have taken some extras? SNIFF-" Schneizel took a couple tissues and sneezed into them. "Grrh, I need some water..."

The elevator slowed down, a ring announcing that it reached its destination. Schneizel rubbed his nose with the tissues when the door opened. Kanon grabbed the prince's cuff. "Come on, we need to go!" Schneizel stuffed the tissues in his pant pocket, shaking his head. "R-Right, lead the way."

* * *

The trio rode the platform up to the shuttle, Kanon waving aside the guards before he lead Schneizel and Diethard into the cabin. He wasn't in a thinking mood right now, and he looked for a bottle of water. Just then the monitor rang with an incoming call, the screen flicking on to show a picture of a chair in the Damocles's control room. Schneizel looked up, his search for water yielding no result. "Great, what now?" He grumbled, not in the mood for more conversation.

The chair rotated, revealing Emperor Lelouch, his hands clasped, his face showing a confident smile. "I've been waiting for you Schneizel."

Schneizel growled, clearly not in the mood for this. He held a handgun he found in his search by the barrel in his left hand, a fistful of tissues in the other. "I suppose this is checkmate?" Schneizel sounded more reserved, as much as he wanted to walk out and go to bed instead. Schneizel sat down on a chair, placing the spare handgun on the table. "Alright, tell me, how did you figure out my plan?" He sniffled a bit, getting the feeling that he was gonna have another sneezing fit.

"It wasn't your plan. What I anticipated was your basic nature."

"My nature?"

"You don't have the will to win." Lelouch played with a Black King chess piece in his hand as he spoke. "That chess match at the Vermilion City, the _coup d'etat_ of the Black Knights, you only play games you can't lose."

"So you knew I would abandon Damocles?" Schneizel rubbed his itching nose with a fresh tissue, keeping his eyes fixated on his younger brother.

"Schneizel, this time I'm making sure that you lose."

"So you plan to kill me."

Lelouch took a deep breath before continuing, "I have a question. Did you want to use Damocles to rule the world?"

"No, I just wanted to give everyone what they wanted. To bring world peace."

"Disregarding humanity's true nature?"

"That's a matter of opinion."

"Then you actually imagine that you can keep the world in a perpetual state of "now". But life without change cannot be considered life. It's nothing more than experience."

"But if you link those together you have no-knowledge right?" Schneizel looked pretty strained, his mind firing on all cylinders just to keep up with this conversation.

Thankfully Lelouch took a deep breath again; perhaps his brother was having trouble with this philosophical debate too. "You truly are superior, so superior you can't even see it. Yes, Emperor Charles sought the past, you seek-"

"ACHOO!" Schneizel sneezed loud, making Diethard jump in his skin. "Achoo!" Achoo! Fuc-ACHOO!" Schneizel kept on sneezing, Kanon coming to the prince's side to give him more tissues. "Your Highness!" He fished out more tissues to give to the prince, but Schneizel finally ceased sneezing, blowing his bright red nose to get that damn snot out.

"F-fuck, sorry Lelouch," Schneizel cleared his throat, trying not to sound like a drowning frog.

"No, it will be better. Because no matter how long it takes, people will continue to seek happiness."

Schneizel raised an eyebrow. "What?" He looked bewildered, "Come again?" Lelouch did not respond for several seconds, appearing to listen attentively to unspoken words. Diethard ran up to the monitor, looking at the side of the screen. "It's a recording! He's trying to trap us!" Diethard yelled, looking around awaiting some sort of response from behind every corner.

Kanon's eyes widened. "Are you sure?" Diethard nodded, "He spoke through that whole sneezing fit, not stopping once!" Schneizel jumped up, snatching the handgun of the table and turning around to watch the back of the plane. Lelouch continued to speak on screen, but none of the three paid heed to the prerecorded speech. Kanon stood up and drew his pistol out. "Pilot, we're taking off now! Close the back!" Kanon's radio drew no response. "Captain, take off now!" He yelled into his collar-mounted transmitter.

A door swung open behind Diethard, and a guard grabbed the man from behind. "Ahhhhhh!" He screamed, and the outside would erupt with gunfire. Schneizel and Kanon ducking low, Kanon firing several shots into the guard behind Diethard, making the guard fall over and release the journalist. "It's an ambush!" Schneizel cried, raising his weapon to fire several rounds at the door behind him, hearing something fall down behind it. Diethard stood up, pointing toward the back of the plane. "Behind us!" Two guards ran toward them, pistols firing and needles of some sort drawn. Kanon and Schneizel crouched behind their seats, unloading the rest of their magazines into the traitor guards when they turned the corner. Schneizel could barely hit the right guard, getting lucky with a shot to the head, the guard crashing down onto the table. _F-fuck, f-focus!_ The prince's mind stuttered, knowing that any hesitation would get him killed.

Kanon reloaded his pistol, while Schneizel ditched his own for the one inside his coat. "We need to take the cockpit and get out of here!" Diethard answered, searching the guard that grabbed him for his pistol. Schneizel nodded, "Agreed, let's move Kanon!" Schneizel kicked down the door he shot through, a guard slumped over dead just in front of it. Kanon grabbed a second pistol off a dead guard and followed the prince through, with Diethard kicking down the other door and rushing inside the next cabin. Gunfire would rattle the walls of the plane, the guards outside trying to destroy it before it can take off.

"All units, meet us at the rendezvous point, we need backup!" Schneizel called into his comm, shooting dead a guard that popped out behind a middle seat. "Where is the cockpit?" He motioned to Kanon, sneezing again, but not bothering to clean it up this time. The three approached a door at the end of the cabin, quickly scanning the seats for any more guards. "Captain?" Kanon yelled to the door.

The door would swing open, a rifle poking out of the opening and spraying in front. "Watch out!" Kanon pushed Schneizel to the side, the aide firing both of his pistols into the door until the fire stopped. Diethard tried to duck behind a seat, only to be riddled with bullets and collapsed in front of the cockpit door. The rifle would fall to the floor, blood seeping out behind the door. "Let's go, come on!" Kanon swung the door open, finding the pilot dead on the floor, the copilot dead in his seat, and the screen cracked by several shots. Schneizel aimed his pistol back down the hallway, expecting more guards to run inside any second. Kanon found the plane already running, and he put the engines to full thrust. The plane lurched upward, the thrusters aimed down to ascend the hangar shaft. Guards continued to fire on the craft with assault rifles, but their rounds could not penetrate the bottom of the craft's hull. Schneizel fiddled with his transmitter to find Nunnally's signal. Two guards with rifles burst into his section of the cabin, rifles scanning the seats. "Nonononono, not now!" Schneizel stayed crouched behind the seats, not knowing how to fight them off with just a pistol.

"Stay down!" Kanon swung the door open and fired the rifle at the left guard before crawling back into the cockpit. The other guard ran forward, giving Schneizel the chance to fire on him when he turned the corner. The guard fell down wailing in pain, and Schneizel kicked the rifle aside, standing up to look at the wounded guard. The guard's eyes glimmered red, a sign of Geass controlling him. "Lelouch, you played well, but it looks like I win." The prince smirked, drenched in sweat and his hair a total mess. The guard writhed about, reaching for a pistol on his holster, to which Schneizel fired his last round into the guard's head, the guard dying with a gurgled whimper.

"Kanon, are you alright?" He turned to the half-opened cockpit. Kanon waved a hand out the door. "Doing fine your Highness, a bit shaken." Schneizel scanned the cabin for a few moments, getting no response from the slumped Diethard. When the coast seemed clear he stepped into the cabin. "Quite a mess," Schneizel commented, pushing the copilot out of his chair and out the door.

"We need to get out fast, before Britannia can intercept us!" Kanon looked at the buttons, finding out how to make the plane thrust forward once it reaches the top of the shaft.

Schneizel took a seat at the copilot's chair, pulling up his transmitter. "Nunnally, fire the last F.L.E.I.J.A. and abandon ship! We'll meet you at Cambodia!" He didn't know if Nunnally would have enough time to escape once she fired the warhead, but in the end it didn't matter too much to his plans.

At the bottom of the shaft the guards continued to fire on the ship, and Lelouch appeared with two guards armed with missile launchers. The emperor did not look pleased one bit. "Damn it, where is Suzaku? He's not responding. C.C., Gold Leader, anyone, stop that ship!" His communicator got no response, and the emperor tossed it on the floor. "Guards, shoot the plane down, and don't miss!" He growled. If he was going to go down with the Damocles, he will take his dear brother with him. The two guards took aim with their launchers and fired , two missiles shooting up toward the hovering ship.

Kanon finally got the ship to the top and he slammed the thrusters forward. "Hang on!" The ship lurched forward, Kanon and Schneizel braced to their seats as the ship accelerated. The two missiles struck right behind the ship, causing the whole craft to shake violently. The blast damaged one of the thrusters, sending the ship falling rather than soaring forward out of the tunnel. The sky was a tranquil blue, but below raged a dark storm, explosions from the battle sprinkling the clouds below with orange and flashes of energy bolts. Kanon looked at the controls, trying to find a way to fix the sudden lack of thrust. "I think we lost an engine!" Kanon slammed the controls. Schneizel looked around to help, but he didn't know a thing about flying a plane, since he tended to leave that to his servants. He tried to find something, anything to stop the freefall, the prince resorting to pressing every button and flipping every switch to see if it would change anything. He was pretty sure the Blaze Luminous system remained online.

"Going down." Schneizel called to his comm, lost for words. Kanon pulled the prince toward him, embracing him for the last time. Time seemed to slow down for the prince, the wait for the ship to crash into the energy field the most painstaking moments he ever felt. Schneizel didn't say anything to his faithful servant, only clutching his chest tight. Kanon said something in a whisper, but the prince did not hear it. Schneizel closed his eyes and waited.

 _With this I save the world. Farewell everyone._

* * *

Suzaku caught an explosion out of the corner of his eye, the energy field flickering green and holding steady despite something impacting it. "That was from inside the shield. Did someone try to escape?" The thought slipped through his head. For now he had to focus on stopping Schneizel.

Gino would have none of it. Although Suzaku struck his Knightmare in half the Knight's speak struck a cylindrical structure on the side of the Damocles. "Now Kallen!" He exclaimed.

Suzaku turned around and looked in shock. The bright-red Guren hovered, holding a section of the shield open with its limbs. "They weakened the shield?" Suzaku clenched his teeth.

"Suzaku! I've come to end it! Our paths will never cross again!" The Guren pilot's voice rang familiar to the Knight of Zero. Before she could continue a bright purple flash filled the sky, the light expanding fast within the airspace. Kallen fell silent, her eyes alight with fear. "Not again..."

Suzaku dove his Lancelot toward the Guren, trying to push himself and the red mech out of the energy field. "Kallen, get back!" He screamed, slamming his Knightmare into the Guren. The two mechs fell through the hole and toward the ocean, but the blast pierced the Blaze Luminous easily, engulfing the three mechs in its destructive light.

"Lelouch, I failed you..." Suzaku cried, before the F.L.E.I.J.A. erased him in its foreboding wake.

* * *

All eyes present at the Battle of Mt. Fuji could only watch the Damocles be torn apart by it's own weapon. The F.L.E.I.J.A. reduced the bottom two-thirds of the floating battle station to shambled metal and slag. The structure could no longer stay afloat, and the massive station fell miles down to the ocean, crashing into the water and sinking quickly beneath the waves. The impact would produce a tsunami that would crash through Japan's coast, crushing cars, toppling buildings, and drowning dozens of civilians in its wake.

Knightmares and airships took to the skies to try and escape the crashing superweapon, with Lelouch's flagship pushed miles back by the great wave. The comms went alight in the aftermath. Britannian forces panicked, scrambling to find the whereabouts of their Great Emperor. The Black Knights turned to the shore to rescue their own and those caught in the tsunami, fearing the worst for the people caught in this horrible event. The battle essentially stopped, with Britannian forces falling into disarray now that their Emperor was missing. They searched for weeks around the site, but found no evidence of his survival.

Emperor Lelouch's favorite Knight would go unaccounted for, as would the feared Guren pilot. Those guarding the Damocles withdrew quietly, mourning the loss of the true heir to the throne. With Lelouch, Nunnally, and Schneizel all perishing on the Damocles the family of Charles zi Britannia was no more. Soon enough political factions back home began to squabble over how to govern the massive empire, and whispers of rebellion began in colonial Areas and UFN nations across the globe.

* * *

Schneizel slipped on his white coat when Kanon rushed into the room. "Your Highness! Lelouch's forces have moved to intercept us! We need you in the control room!" Schneizel fetched his pistol off of the desk and slipped it into his coat. "Lelouch is faster than I thought." The prince stormed past his aide. "Let's go, we have no time to waste."

Kanon followed after the prince, closing the door behind him. Schneizel's allergy pills sat next to his bed, having been unopened today in the rush to get ready. When the fate of the world is on the line minor tasks like taking medicine are easily forgotten.

* * *

 **The End**

 _Thanks for reading! Comment and Critique are appreciated._


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